Chu Thi Tuyet Nhung (L), a patient from the northern province of Bac Giang, meets with Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi on January 23

A doctor and a nurse at a hospital in the northern province of Bac Giang have been transferred for mistreating a patient as the Minstry of Health tries to clean up the medical sector's act.

The Ministry of Health ordered the leaders of Bac Giang General Hospital to take actions against its staff following complaints lodged by patient Chu Thi Tuyet Nhung, who met with Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien on January 23.

Luong Ngoc Khue, chief of the ministry’s Medical Treatment and Examination Administration, said on Friday that Dr. Nguyen Thi Hue and nurse Nguyen Thi Ngat were transferred from the hospital’s Department of Neurology and Rheumatology to the Department of Bacterial Infection Control.

The entire staff of the Department of Neurology and Rheumatology was also censured, he said.

According to Nhung, 70, she visited the hospital for an examination on January 10 because she had a headache and fever for nearly two weeks.

Doctors then told her to stay at the hospital for treatment without telling her what was wrong.

She was administered several injections while at the hospital.

On January 13, a female doctor gave Nhung a check-up and ordered a nurse to measure her blood pressure, but again did not tell her what the results of the check-up were.

Nhung said she told the doctor her symptoms in the hope that she would be enlightened about her condition.

However, the doctor only asked her where her family was.

When she said no one accompanied her, the doctor “immediately” shouted at her, saying that without her family’s presence, they could not give her any more injections because they needed permission, according to Nhung.

Not until her family came to the hospital did the doctor tell them that Nhung had no significant disease but only slightly high blood pressures. He then allowed her to be discharged.

But Nhung said that because she still did not feel well after that, she sought another examination at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi, where she met with the minister while the latter was visiting the hospital.

In November last year, the Ministry of Health established a hotline to receive patients’ complaints about the quality of local medical services.

So far, 40 percent of the calls have been related to health worker expertise, attitude and responsibility, online newspaper Dan Tri quoted the ministry as reporting.

The rest were about bribery, fraud, fee problems and the quality of infrastructure.